The Kevin Sheehan Show - NFT & WFT

Episode Date: May 6, 2021

Kevin and Thom today discussed, NFTs, Ponzi Schemes, Crypto Currencies, Aaron Rodgers, Washington's 3-5 year quarterback plan, the Wizards, the Nats, the Caps, and the Orioles' no-hitter. And other things too.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. The show today brought to you by Window Nation. If you're thinking of new windows, please do me a favor and give Windonation a call at 86690 Nation

or go to Window Nation.com and give them the first shot. You don't have to commit to them. You'll get a free estimate. You can shop that estimate all you want. But if you call them at 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation, com and mention that you heard about them from Kevin Sheehan, from the podcast, from the radio show. They will take good care of you. They've got a phenomenal deal going on right now.

They're going to save you thousands on your windows compared to national brands. And the quality is better, if not the same. Their attention to detail is second to none. They measure each window three times to ensure the proper fit. And right now, they're giving you their windows, all right? 50% off price-wise, but you don't have to put any money down. You don't have to make any payments, and you won't pay any interest for 24 months. So for two years, you'll have windows in your home, saving big time on energy bills, upgrading the look of your home, increasing the equity in your

home, and you won't have to pay a dime for two years. And when you do start to pay, you'll be paying half price. A wind donation, 50% off every single. style window that they make, you get to choose bows, bays, picture and garden windows, any style, any color, get 50% off with no money down, no payments, and no interest for two full years. 86690 Nation, windownation.com. No risk, free estimate. Shop it around if you want. You won't get a better deal and you won't work with better people. They have a 97% customer satisfaction rating. They are one of the top five window retailers in America, and last year alone, 96% of their installations required no follow-up service. 86690 Nation or windownation.com.

Tommy's here with me today. If you missed Cooley yesterday, breaking down Washington's draft, I would urge you to go listen to yesterday's show as well. The draft recap for Cooley started at the 22-minute mark of yesterday's. show and there are a couple of players he likes and a couple he's not so sure of, but it was a tidy, you know, 25 minutes or so of Cooley going through each one of Washington's picks from round two through the fifth round, really. He had done Jamon Davis last Friday. Also, just a reminder, subscribe. If you haven't subscribed, it doesn't cost you anything. And rate us and review us, if you have time, especially on Apple Podcasts.

You said right before we started to record this podcast that something just happened to you that you want to share. What is it? Well, we're getting new counters. We're doing a new kitchen in the condo we bought last year. So somebody came to measure the counter space and talked to my wife about the counters. And I walked in on the middle of it. And, you know, just to give an idea, just act interested, you know, because I couldn't tell you what our counters are made of now,

let alone what they're going to be. And the guy says, are you to Laverro who's on the radio and the podcast? He's big fans of you and me. All right. Well, will something come of it? for you guys? No. No, I didn't even think of it. Well, you usually do think of those things. Yeah. You know what? I'm thinking maybe I should have asked for some blockchain or cryptocurrency or maybe him and me can get an NFT together. What's an NFT?

Non-fundable tokens. I've heard that before. Is that a new cryptocurrency or something? What is that? It is a, it's hard to explain because I can't explain it. Okay. A non-fungible token? Yes. Okay. Now, I think I have heard this. Isn't this, isn't this a form of cryptocurrency, which by the way, I don't understand either, despite reading a lot about it and having my younger brother who lives abroad, who swears by Bitcoin and others.

actually purchased some Bitcoin for my sons a few years back. So I sort of follow the Bitcoin price every once in a while. But as much reading as I've done on cryptocurrency, when I say as much reading, I'm interested in trying to actually learn what it is and how it works. And I'm telling you, Tommy, on these things, I'm not stupid on most of these things. I usually can get it. This one, I swear to you, feels like a Ponzi scheme. I've told my brother that many times.

And he's like, no, no, no, no, no, it's not. And let me explain to you why. And then he starts to explain why. And I basically say, I'm lost. That's it. That's the problem. The explanations, here's a question. I've read an art, I've read about this like you.

I mean, I don't like things going on that I don't understand. That become popular? Yeah. I mean, I'd like to understand them at least. Right. And then say, oh, you're an idiot, you know. But so, so I read one, I've read numerous articles. And one was from a website called The Verge, which basically broke it down into what people's

questions would be and answered them. And here's one of the questions. I want to maximize my blockchain use. And I buy NFTs with cryptocurrencies. Did you need a translation on that? I don't even know what the question. are about. I know. I know. I mean, I, you know, I can remember one of the, I can remember one of the very first questions I asked my brother, who's really into this and he owns a bunch of Bitcoin.

He's involved in a lot of different things. I just said, what do we need it for? What is the, what's the service and or product that is provided? Why do we need another system of payment? There's just there's so much nitty gritty into this. And if you're not living in it day to day, I think it's really hard. You know, like you just said, like terms like blockchain and all of this, you know, decentralized money systems and all these different things. And, you know, it's not a government-based currency. It's like, you know what?

I can use a credit card or cash right now and it still works. and until it doesn't work, then I don't know if I want to invest any more time in this. I'm telling you, every time somebody brings this up and I start to listen to it, it almost feels like at some point, we're going to look back and say, oh, my God, if you were in early in the first couple years,

you made a fortune and everybody else got stuck holding the bucket. for this. And I think your instincts are right. I might be completely wrong. I don't know if my instincts are right or wrong. The fact that it's so difficult to understand, and by the way, for the people that understand it, sometimes I kind of feel like they just think it's cool to act as if they understand it, but that they don't understand it either. It's like somebody, started their own treasury department. Yeah. And is that, is that legal?

What's the, you know, the, I mean, I know we always talk about the, the office. I do anyway. And there's that, that episode, and I forget which episode it is, but it's, it's Jim, you know, saying to Michael, this sort of feels like a pyramid scheme in me. Michael, no, no, no, it's not a pyramid scheme. and then he gets up and he draws, you know, a couple of things and then puts the triangle pyramid around it. And just, and that's like a, you know, one of their, one of their cold opens, you know, as they call them. Absolutely. Well, the reason I did this is because I'm trying to learn about NFTs, non-fundgible tokens.

What is it? Which as far as I can determine is like digital collectibles, digital art. Basically, like videos that are shot that are turn around and sold as collectibles. I know. I mean, that's what it is. You want to hear the definition? I just pulled it up on our good friend Wikipedia. Oh, I'm sure the definition is priceless.

Listen to this. A non-fungible token, parentheses, NFT, previously referred to as Bitcoin 2.0. So I did have sort of the crypto connection there. Is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger called a blockchain that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable? What? What does that mean? And who determines that? NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files.

Access to any copy of the original file, however, is not restricted. to the buyer of the NFT. While copies of these digital items are available to anyone to obtain, NFTs are tracked on blockchains to provide the owner with a proof of ownership that is separate from copyright. Well, thank God for the blockchains. If not, we wouldn't have any proof. I mean, I think it's possible, buddy, that you could sell little excerpts of your podcast as an

NFT. So this segment alone could actually become a non-fungible token. I think so. I mean, because this is the original. Don't we need the digital ledger first? We need the blockchain. We need to certify that it's a digital asset. I mean, there's like, I just put in NFT sold.

One just sold for $69 million. Well, let's do it then. The NFT market value tripled in 2020. reaching more than $250 million. And I know people will now explain this to us on social media and emails and stuff. And it's not like something, again, it's not something I want to get involved in, but I really don't like it when there's a world going on out there that I'm just totally clueless about.

I got you. You know, I try to understand as much about e-sports and video games as I can without playing them because I recognize there is a whole huge world of this that surrounds this. Isn't that I don't know about? Isn't that Twitch? Isn't that what you do on Twitch? That's part of. I mean, I'm talking e-sports, video games.

Do you know what Twitch is? Yeah, it's a video. So it's a video website. Yeah, my son was trying to explain it to me the other night. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people have become Twitch stars. Yeah. I mean, they put NFL games on Twitch.

You know. I think they put sporting events on Twitch. So this may be interesting to some, but actually, you know what's interesting to me is like just the various Ponzi schemes that have existed. Have you in your lifetime ever been pitched? on, you know, a pyramid scheme business. Oh, I have. I had a friend who, I had a friend who was selling food.

And it was, it was, and tried to get me in. And it was, it was a pyramid scheme thing. And I've had relatives who worked for, quote, insurance companies that turned out to be, but I, I've never been sucked into one. So I, you know, I think I was just out of college at the time and a friend, a friend, a friend, friend of ours was, you know, involved in some sort of water filtration system, you know, business. And, you know, this was my first experience. You know, Amway, wasn't it Amway?

Yes. That was the big one. Amway was, right? Wasn't Art Monk involved in Amway in a big way? I don't know. I could be wrong about that. But luck, the guy who started Amway owns the Orlando Magic. No, no, I understand.

Like, well, anybody that started all of these things, you know. Who isn't in jail? Who isn't in jail or now dead? But, you know, like, you know, what's his face? The Wall Street guy that basically had the, you know, a lot of the hedge fund or the investment fund Ponzi schemes, those are worse because there's actually no product actually involved. At least with a water filtration system or with others, there's actually a product.

But still, whenever the emphasis is on recruiting new people to sell the product, rather than to sell the product itself. Basically, it's going to fall. You know, it's the old, hey, if you recruit 10 people, then you get a piece of every one of the people that they recruit and so on and so on and so on. But I'll never forget, I went to one of these meetings. I must have been 22, 23 years old water filtration systems. And they had the product out.

And I'm telling you, it was the fanciest, you know, presentation you've ever seen. And, I mean, people were ginned up in that meeting. And I remember, I'm like, wow, so if all I have to do is get 10 people to start selling this, and then I'm going to really make $700,000 a month or whatever it was, you know, back then. And I never did it. And I don't think it's, I don't think it's because I felt there was something sketchy about it. I think that I was working full time and I just didn't have time to do it. But I did have a friend that did it.

And then, of course, they all gin each other up. They're all, oh, my God, this is incredible. And it's one big show, hey, can we do a presentation at your place? Or why don't we go to, you know, the restaurant. We'll do it in the bat, whatever. And they all felt, Amway was the big one. I forget what the name of the water filtration system was. but you know they sold you on the product but then it was all really about recruiting recruiting more people

and making money off of them recruiting more people because there was a cost to get into it new skin was another one not new skin um another one like a lot of the cosmetic companies were very multi-level marketing driven was it yeah not not we're basically you weren't trying to sell product. You were trying to sell people. Yeah, you were trying to recruit people, not sell product. This is the last I'm going to say about it. This is a New York Times story published updated April 13th, 2021. The artist Mike Winkleman, also known as People. I've never heard of this artist before. Is it one of the Winkleman brothers or whatever from the, from Facebook? Maybe it is. He just.

their last name? I'm looking that up. No, I don't know. He just sold an NFT at a record breaking $69.3 million dollars, the third highest price

achieved by a living artist. The sale at Christie's feared a purely digital work was the strongest indication yet that NFTs have taken the art market by storm, making the lead from special

website, to premier auction houses, people, a newcomer to the fine art world who just heard about NFTs five months ago. Five months ago, he just heard of these, and now he just made $69 million off one, is the most high-profile artist to profit off the huge boom sales of these much-hyped

but poorly understood commodities. Wow. Oh, by the way, it's the Winkle Voss twin brother. Oh, okay. Well, this guy's Mike Winkleman. He's some kind of artist known as Beeple. By the E-E-E-P-L-E. The Winkle-Vos twins are worth $6 billion based on the Facebook stock that I guess they own right now.

So I'm telling you, what you need to do is put one of your sons on finding some clips of the. best of the sports fix podcast here when we do the sports fix on Tuesdays and Thursdays and start selling them as NFTs. Yes. Turn them into an NFT. Yeah. What do you think really they would be valued at? I don't think much.

Yeah, me neither. Okay. Is that enough of this conversation? By the way, those of you that are sitting there going, hey, guys, it's not. that hard. Okay. I'm not saying that I know for sure it's not that hard. I'm just saying that at this point, despite reading a lot about it, having a brother that's significantly involved in, in, in, in, in really, you know, I think he, well, I'm not going to tell you how much Bitcoin he owns. But the bottom line is, I haven't really figured it out. And I don't know,

maybe I'm losing interest. I had interest for a while. Maybe my new interest will be NFTs now. Let's see if we can figure out the NFTs and see if we can't get involved. And in five months, maybe you and I are splitting $69 million. There you go. You know, there's a couple of athletes. We cut the podcast back to just a couple days a week if that happened. Okay. There's a couple of athletes who have taken their contracts in Bitcoin.

Yeah, I've heard that. I've heard that. I mean, it's stunning. Yeah. I think there's a couple of the guys that were drafted last week that want to take their signing bonus of money in Bitcoin. Yes. So, okay. I'm sure we'll learn about it after this podcast.

I'm sure we will. I wanted to share this story with you. We have several things that we'll touch on for shorter periods of time today. And we promise not to do 35 minutes on the Wizards like we did the other day. But I wanted to, I wanted to read this story to you. Kyle Shanahan was on the Rich Eisen podcast a couple days ago. And he talked about the 2012 draft. The 2012 draft, of course, was the draft in which Washington traded up to number two overall with the Rams and selected Robert Griffin III.

Now, you and I and our listeners know some of this because Mike's told us this on various shows over the years. But this is what was new from Kyle Shanahan talking about the 2012 draft. He said that he, Kyle, thought that Kirk Cousins after Andrew Luck was the best quarterback in the draft. And he wanted to wait, and he tried to convince his father, to wait in draft Kirk Cousins in the second round. That he thought Cousins was ranked higher than RG3. he had him as the second ranked guy in the draft after Andrew Luck, and he thought it made more sense to wait until the second round and take cousins. Well, we didn't know that.

We do remember that Kyle really liked John Beck, so let's not forget that, or at least he said it when he was in Houston. Anyway, he said, quote, I remember, you know, we already took RG3, and I had ranked Kirk as the higher guy. and I wanted to take him the second round, but my dad loved Russell Wilson. And all along, he planned on taking Russell Wilson in the fourth round. He thought he would be available in the fourth round. Well, Mike's told us that before.

Mike's told us that he had Russell Wilson as the third, you know, ranked quarterback in that draft. And I want to make sure that everybody's clear on this because I've said this many, many times before. Mike was dead set against the Donovan McNabb trade. Mike would not have made the trade with the Rams had he known about the $36 million salary cap penalty in 2012. However, he was not against the trade and against the selection to take Robert Griffin III. He was along for the ride with Dan and Bruce, but he told us, and he's told me many times, there were two things that he impressed upon with Bruce and Dan. One was that Robert Griffin the third was not going to be able to play quarterback, the traditional way to start,

and they were going to have to implement a lot of college offensive aspects to get them on the field in that rookie year. And that number two, that he had a concern about whether or not Griffin would handle adversity well. And remember, he told us this story. He told us the story of he's sitting in one of his meetings pre-draft with Robert, and his father. And on video, Mike pulls up tape of a game against, I think it was Oklahoma State, Baylor against Oklahoma State, where Griffin threw two picks in the red zone. And he said that Robert and his father fell all over each other, you know, basically blaming everybody but themselves for the interceptions. Blame the coach, blame the coordinator, everything. And so those were the

two things that he told Dan and Bruce. I'm in on this, and it's exciting because we can play football in a way that's going to be almost brand new to the NFL. Kyle's got a lot of ideas, etc. However, Mike never told anybody that he wasn't going to take a second quarterback. And of course, you and I debated that forever when it happened. You were dead set against them taking Kirk Cousins and said it created right from the jump, you know, a different. difficult situation. And maybe in hindsight, you were right because of Robert Griffin, the third's insecurity in particular. But Mike wanted to take Russell Wilson. Well, Kyle told the story. He said, we got to the fourth round and Wilson was gone. And he said, his father said,

Russell's gone, we're sitting there on the clock in the fourth round. And my dad goes, I'm going to take cousins. And Kyle said, dad, why the hell are you taking cousins? And he said, well, because you had him ranks so high and we love him as a player. And Kyle said, well, I wasn't going to say no to that. And I said, go ahead and take him. But Kyle's point was we had already taken a quarterback. He said, I wanted cousins to be a,

the quarterback that we took. But anyway, there were a couple of new things there, you know, that Kyle was in love with cousins to begin with and had him as his second ranked, you know, quarterback on the board. And that Mike, you know, when they got to the fourth round, Kyle thought that the ship had sailed on a second quarterback since Russell Wilson was taken and then they took cousins. Wow. I mean, so many things about history would have been different.

Just a simple, just a simple. just a simple decision for Seattle to pass on Russell Wilson in the third round could have changed history. Can you imagine if they had drafted RG3 and Russell Wilson had been available in the fourth round they had taken Russell Wilson? First of all, this skill set, very similar, unlike cousins in RG3. So the offense that they put together for RG3 was also the offenses initially that Seattle and Darrell Bevel put together for Wilson off of what Washington was doing. San Francisco did the same thing with Kaepernick. And so you would have had Wilson, by the way, take over for Griffin.

And I don't know what would have happened. Who knows? That's true. Although I think because Mike really loved Wilson and Griffin would have probably, I don't know, I have no idea what the dynamic would have been in the quarterback room. The dynamic between Griffin and cousins wasn't very good, and it wasn't very good, and we've been told this so many times over the years, because Kirk did have and did play in a more pro-style college offense and was more advanced in understanding sort of an NFL traditional quarterback system. And by the way, it was a perfect fit for the zone run scheme, bootleg play action, Shanahan system. And that apparently made, you know, RG3 very uncomfortable from the jump.

And, you know, in hindsight, obviously it worked out for the team because they got multiple productive years out of Kirk Cousins. And then they fucked it up, but whatever. But to your initial point, and several people agreed with you, a lot of people agreed with you, people were very split on that. My opinion was, well, how do we know that RG3 is the answer? And you, you know, two is better than one. You can't have one. You need two. Anyway, and remember, I was a Cousins fan from Michigan State.

I predicted Washington was going to draft him like a year before. You do remember that, right? Look, I'm not, I don't remember that. Oh, my God. Okay, fine. I don't remember that at all. But I'm not saying it's not true. I'm not saying you didn't say it.

Well, you've told me before that you remembered it. So you're really, you're really starting to forget things. Hey, I bet you I know more about NFTs than you do. There's no doubt you know that. No, you know what it was? It was one of our, you heard it here first segments. We had this segment every week called You Heard It Here First. It was like bold prediction.

And a year before, a year before I said, Kirk Cousins from Michigan State's going to be Washington's starting quarterback in two years. You know what that is? That's an NFT. It's a clear point. You should get that audio. I should have made that a digital asset. Yes.

I really should have. Absolutely. And then, you know, and then Rich Eisen and all those bozos would have to pay you. Put it into the blockchain. I don't think so. You know, that's the thing. I don't think you got to pay anybody.

If you use one of those things, just use it. Okay. It's not like you've gained the rights to it. You know, I just think you get to say, well, you got the original. Apparently, NFTs are big in the porn world. A lot of porn stars are taking advantage of their work. and creating NFTs out of it.

Well, that doesn't surprise me that you would be familiar with that. Well, I'm just reading from the Wikipedia page. Okay. Okay, so now, we have never talked. You and I, I know you've probably endlessly talked about it on the radio. We have never talked about RG3's comments about Kirk.

I thought we did talk about it. Not you and me. About, you know, that Cousins is, just collecting checks out there in Minnesota. Yeah, I thought it was hysterical. Actually, I'm pretty sure I did it on the podcast. Well, maybe you did it with Cooley, but you didn't do it with me. I didn't do it with Cooley.

Well, because, you know, whatever, you didn't have me on. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. So what was your reaction to it? Well, my reaction was, was, I laughed so much. I mean, this guy would love to be collecting Kirk Cousin's checks. He's never going to collect the check by Kirk Cousins. I mean, this is the guy, you know, I mean, you can argue that Kirk Cousins has not delivered playoff results like people hoped he would.

But RG3 can't carry his job as an NFL quarterback. They don't even belong on the same field in the same stadium. So the first thing I thought of when I saw this, I mean, I'm going to guess no less than 50 people sent me the link on Twitter. And the first thing I thought of is, you know, Griffin could really do this. Like he can, he really could be an NFL analyst, a TV guy. He has, there's something about his. way of communicating that is that's really top shelf. And I, you know, how much of it you believe or whatever or how much of a phony you think he is.

But he's a phenomenal communicator. You know, when he did the interview on John Kimes' podcast last summer, I think I said to you, I go, this guy's going to have a really successful post-NFL life. Now, there are the insecurities, there's the delusion, there is the, all this stuff. But he could easily be a politician. He could easily decide to run for Congress in the Waco district and probably win and end up in Congress. First of all, he's very, very bright innately. And he is a very good communicator.

So the first thing I thought of is I was like, wow, you know, he's not in the NFL, the Ravens release. him. I don't think anybody's going to pick him up, although I think he was stumping a little bit with Kyle. He wants to be, he wants to be, Trey Lance's mentor. Mentor. What's he going to do? Teach him how to watch game film. Teach him how to throw his teammates under the bus after a game. But he would be excellent as an analyst. I don't know why somebody hasn't hired him yet. Maybe they're going to. I don't know if he would be excellent as an analyst. Oh, I think. I mean, because, I mean, you got to have some level of understanding of the game. No, you have to, you have to believe in your own understanding of the game and be able to communicate.

I think he's got the potential to make a living in media somehow or some way or in politics, but I'm not going to jump on this. He's going to be an excellent analyst bandwagon. Well, keep in mind, too, part of what I think you like. and I like too, is we like people who aren't afraid to be critical. And that's the first time I've ever seen him in that role. It was on some bleacher report, you know, draft show. And he went after cousins. He went after him.

But yeah, I mean, the net of it is. I mean, oh, oh, God. Bless your heart. I mean, it's like, you have to earn the right to say that. Yeah. He hasn't earned the right. I mean, God bless you, RG3. I mean, you will become the focus of one of the real interesting 30 for 30s of all time.

The meteoric rise in the immediate fall after one of the great rookie seasons of all time, never to even come close to achieving what you did during the rookie season. And God, if only everybody would commit to talking and being interviewed for that 30 for 30. and I have a feeling there will be a lot of people that will pass on that, especially a lot of his teammates at the time. They'll get some. They'll get some. But a lot of the things that we heard and we heard from players and teammates and some of the stories,

you know, who knows if all of them are true? I'm sure that they've been exaggerated, just like the Rangers statement from the other night. We just a little bit exaggerated, horrifying act of violence. But anyway, I mean, the, guy, he is one-100th the career that Cousins has had and probably is so jealous about the money that Cousins has earned. With that said, Tommy, you know what's really interesting about Cousins? He's as polarizing in Minnesota as he was here. I mean, with that draft of Kellyn Monde in the third round, Vikings fans, you could see it, were rejoicing that they had somebody to replace.

When I say polarizing, those that can't stand Kirk, they're like, oh, thank God. And then other people are like, seriously, you really think Kellan Mon is going to replace this guy? Oh, by the way, just as an aside, because we're going to get to the Rogers thing. Do you know that the Vikings told Kirk Cousins that we may draft a quarterback? We wanted to let you know. We thought it would be the respectful thing to do to say, hey, just so you know, as your watching the draft, there's the possibility we're going to take a quarterback. You know who else was told?

Andy Dalton was told in Chicago by the Bears. They just signed him 10 minutes ago as their free agent quarterback. The Bears are a screwed up organization in their own right. And they told Andy Dalton, hey, we just want to give you a heads up that we may be trading up and taking a quarterback. And the Packers a year ago never even mentioned it to Aaron Rogers. I mean, there is obviously an incredible contrast there, and it's part of what's got Rogers so upset, which is where I want to go next.

I want to continue this conversation about Aaron Rogers and give you some feedback to a poll that I put out yesterday. We'll do that right after this word from one of our sponsors. Yesterday, Tommy, on the radio show, I put out a Twitter poll with Bill Bull. Barnwell's, you know, breakdown of the possible teams that would be in play as trade partners for Green Bay and Aaron Rogers. And he had Denver as the most likely, and he had Washington as the second most likely team.

There have been others that have been out there that have suggested that Washington would certainly be a team that would be in the mix. Richard Sherman of all people, and I forget where I saw this, but Richard Sherman said, man, Washington would be a great fit for Aaron Rogers. Anyway, the net of it was that Barnwell, you know, came up with two firsts, two seconds, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Matt Ionitis for Aaron Rogers. And I did it as a Twitter poll, 5,500 votes later. Two-thirds, 66% said yes, they would do it.

And a third said no. I voted on that poll, by the way, just to let you know. And what did you vote? I voted yes. Okay, yeah. You count me in. This is really, and I know I've been already, you know, very adamant about this would be, like, to me, one of the biggest no-brainers of all time in all of the sports debates that we've had over the years. Tommy, you know, the two of us are coolly and me and then, you know, all of us with many of you.

to me, this is like the biggest, obvious, no-brainer, yes, yes, and yes, that I've ever seen. And I don't really understand. But I think the conversation is interesting to hear what some of you say. And basically, like, one of my favorite responses was this response. I voted no. I want us to be the Patriots with Brady, not the Buccaneers with Brady. Okay. I mean, I don't get this. This notion of building, you know, this, this organ, this team, the right way. What is their right way? Well, that's, you know, I know what everybody means by the right way, but the right way doesn't work like more than 50% of the time. You know, it's better to have that way than no way.

the right way meaning, all right, we're going to build it from the inside out. We're going to draft linemen and on both sides of the ball. We're going to have a good defense. We're going to have good supporting players. And then we'll go out and find the quarterback. And that's what people think of when they think of the right way. I just thought that answer was funny because it's like now we're getting picky about what kind of Super Bowl team and Super Bowl winner we prefer. Well, of course, I'd prefer to be the Patriots with Brady in six rings rather than the

with one. Oh, by the way, it might be more than one before Brady is done. But the point is that the way the Patriots did it is they hit on Brady. They were the one out of, you know, whatever the number is. You know, every year there's like, okay, one out of the first four or five are going to be a really good quarterback. But that's not a Brady. That's like a one that of 50, you know, quarterbacks drafted. It just, it's so hard to hit on that.

It's why so few teams have had it over the years and so many more yearn for it. You know what Aaron Rogers is. You don't have to build it the, you know, right way and then find Aaron Rogers, which you probably won't.

The odds are stacked heavily against you finding Aaron Rogers. The odds are stacked heavily against you finding Matt Stafford, you know, in terms of talent and ability. More likely than not, you will strike out multiple times in your effort, and by then, building it right will be old and gone. So, look, there are Baltimore's, and they're, you know, organizations that have had really smart people, and Ozzie Newsom, and DeCosta, and an outstanding owner,

and over a long period of time, without an elite quarterback, they have been a really good franchise, and we've seen that. But for the most part, you know, you need a really good quarterback. But beyond that, it's Aaron Rogers who's available. This is incredibly unique. The ringer. Coming off, like you've said, an MVP season. Yeah.

He's not Peyton Manning, who people are looking at grainy video to see if he could, he actually throw a pass again. Right. The ringer wrote a story, and I'm looking for it because I had it here a moment ago. Can you imagine Terry McClure with Aaron Rogers? Oh, Curtis Samuel with him, with Antonio Gibbill. Everybody, I mean, there was a line from the ringer story. First of all, there have been some things that have come out over the last 24 hours.

The Athletic reported that Rogers has referred to the GM Guttencunst as basically Jerry Krause. You know, the last dance, we all saw, you know, just the incredible deference paid by the owner of the Chicago Bulls in the 90s to Jerry Krause. And, you know, I think the biggest takeaway from the last dance for me, and I know we talked about this, is it didn't have to end when it ended. But they chose Jerry Krause. Jerry Krauss has six world championships to his resume. I understand that. I mean, Aaron Rogers could come up with a better role model to ridicule than Jerry Krause. This is all because of the way he looks.

Look, I agree with you that it's not the right, it's not the apt comparison. The point being that basically Jerry Krauss, Reinsdorf decided to back Jerry Krauss instead of Jordan and Pippen. And it didn't need to end after six titles. They could have gotten another one, two or three of them. Anyway, the ringer wrote, let me see who wrote this story, Kevin Clark. I don't know. I don't read The Ringer that much, but I just found this story. Somebody sent it to me.

There's never really been any story like this with a reigning NFL MVP, a saga with endless possibilities, all of which would single-handedly change the balance and power in the league. there is no realistic transaction currently on the table that has more possibilities for butterfly effects. First of all, if the Packers decided it's time to trade Rogers and called the 31 other teams and said, we'll give you Rogers for a first round pick plus your current starting quarterback, they'd probably get 25 to 26 yeses. First of all, there aren't 31 teams that would be in the mix.

but they write about 15 of those teams would instantly vault into the Super Bowl discussion upon acquiring Rogers. Trading Rogers would obviously remove the Packers as a legitimate Super Bowl contender. See, this is, I guess, nets out the way I feel. Washington would be one of those 15 teams. I don't know if it's 15, but would be one of the 10 teams that if Rogers going to, traded to them, they'd immediately vault into the Super Bowl discussion would be, as I discussed with Cooley yesterday, I think they, my sense of it is they would be the second pick in the NFC to win the NFC championship next year behind Tampa. Some of you really push back on that.

And that's fine. Some of you said, no, the 49ers with Lance, really, as a rookie? He might not even play as a rookie. And many of you said the Rams are a better team, even with Stafford. And I think the Rams are going to get a lot of conversation. And some of you said Seattle and even Dallas. Look, I'm telling you, if Washington got Rogers for the Barnwell package to first two seconds, Ionitis in Fitzpatrick, Washington is no worse than third and probably the second pick to win the NFC championship.

I agree with you. 1,000 percent. And I mean, this is insanity. the idea that no, we're not going to jump at the chance and mortgage our future for a chance at success now. And part of what you just said, I guess I've always had a bit of an issue with, mortgaging the future. Because I remember I was all in favor of the RG3 or the trade with the Rams to go to number two. And so was I. I remember having this debate with Zabe and a couple of other people at the station,

and I said, you know, these picks, I mean, I don't want to give them away. But if you tell me that we're going big on a potential 10-year-plus solution at the most important position on the field, and we got to give up three ones and a two to do it, I'm doing it. Like if you tell me, and look, that's a different conversation for two reasons. One, you're getting a quarterback for a much longer period of time if you hit on it. But the downside is you don't know if you're getting the right quarterback. This situation is you know you're getting the right quarterback. You're just not going to have them for 10 years, but you might have them for five.

You certainly are going to have them for 3 to 4. And over the next 3 to 4 years, while you're building it the right way and you're winning 9 games in 10, 10 games and maybe 11, and then looking for that solution when Ryan Fitzpatrick leaves, the Denver Broncos have been in two AFC title games. They upset Mahomes in the third one and got to the Super Bowl. The Broncos would be, see, they're in the division with Mahomes, and the chiefs are really good. But, you know, in the NFC, put them on Carolina. All right, Carolina, it's Carolina and Tampa, brother.

Those are the two teams next year. that's it. The other thing, too, is I find it interesting that so many of you, and I know the package was less. It was a first, a second, and a player for Matt Stafford. You know, an extra first, right? It was the swap of 19 and 7. And then it was, no, I'm sorry, it wasn't the swap for 19. It was a, it was the first rounder number 19 overall to Detroit, a second rounder and then a player, which I had heard that Landing Collins was a possibility. there were other names mentioned. And many of you pushed back on that one too, but I kind of have this sense that not as many. Well, the package wasn't as significant,

but Stafford isn't the player that Rogers is either. And by the way, Stafford's 33 years old. So I would have loved that trade. I would have been all in on being aggressive going after Deshawn Watson. The big difference with Watson is he had a no-trade. clause. So he had made it clear that, you know, the teams that he was interested in, I think they were Carolina and the Jets in Miami, whatever. That ship is sailed. We don't know what the situation with him is. And Rogers, by the way, and I acknowledge this. This is a total hypothetical,

clearly. And the odds on him, you know, wanting to play here, I don't know, Tommy. Rivera's respected. The team is pretty good in getting better. The weapons are. aren't, you know, he may not have Devante Adams here, but he'll have McLaren and Samuel and a rookie and Diami Brown who could be good and a running back in Gibson, and the defense is better

than the one he had in Green Bay last year. But there's still Snyder here, and Rogers is, you know, Rogers is quite aware of, you know, what this organization has been. He might not want any part of this organization. But it would be a chance for him to stay in the NFC. they have the Packers on the schedule next year too.

Yeah, you see, I mean, I'm sure revenge plays a small part in this. He goes to the AFC in Denver. I mean, he ain't going to see Green Bay on the field again, probably. So, and that's part of what he wants. He's obviously angered and, and wants some level revenge. My question would, two-level question to you, this is something this is the one thing right that you want dan schneider to push for no i don't want dan schneider to push for anything i want the football people okay let's say let's say

if ron revera wants it and he goes to dan sneer and he says we have to get this guy oh okay well that's what i mean then what i'd love to to know what i'd love the answer to be from a new Dan Snyder, if that's even possible, is go get him, Ron. I'm supportive of you. Okay. That's what I meant. I didn't mean that Snyder gets him on his own. Yeah.

I don't want... I mean, an organizational decision with the ultimate backing of Dan Snyder. Yeah, I don't want Dan saying, hey, I just had a conversation with Mark Murphy, and I've got the whole thing teed up for you. No. You want this, right? You want that. Okay.

Yeah. The second thing is, the second thing is, if he is available and he is traded and he doesn't come to Washington, is that a failure of this new powerful front office that we've got? I believe it would be a failure if they weren't aggressive going after this if he's actually made available. Yes. So do I. I think that would be a failure. Look, I felt the same way about Stafford. I told you that.

I think they should be aggressive going after Matt Stafford. This is a young team with a lot of pieces and you're going to get a guy for the next five years who can really do it. Now, not everybody is a believer in Stafford, and I have been. And we'll see what happens in L.A. And they did go for it. You know, that wasn't a paltry offer. They got outbid by the Rams. And, you know, and I don't mind having a price that you won't pay for Matt Stafford.

I would have had a problem, and by the way, when I say a price you won't pay, obviously, I'm not giving away all my picks for the next 10 years and giving away all my players. I'm talking about what's reasonable. Something that the NFL wouldn't put a stop to, you know, like the Chris Paul thing from, you know, years ago in the NBA. I, for Deshawn Watson before his recent issues, and definitely for Aaron Rogers, I would not, you know, I'd be super aggressive and I wouldn't get. beat on it. Or I certainly would make sure that if I get beat, I get beat because the team decided

they wanted to send the player to a place he wanted to go to, even for a lesser package. Okay. I agree with all that. What about the dynamic? And I don't know Ron Rivera at all. Okay. What about the dynamic of the coach not wanting a quarterback who's more powerful than him in the organization. I don't, don't you think to a certain degree, he's already been through that with Cam Newton?

Well, no, he drafted Cam Newton. This is different. Okay. I mean, Cam Newton was a homegrown product. He was raised in the NFL by Ron Rivera. This is a different thing. And I don't know if that would come into play, but I would think with some coaches,

they'd say, you know, I'd be very weary of having a quarterback, of trading for a quarterback, who's then going to be the most powerful person in the organization, not me. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, and I don't even know what that means the most powerful person in the organization. It's not like Aaron Rogers is going to come in and start doing Ron Rivera's job. No. So, I mean, Ron Rivera's stamp on Sundays is defense, not a lot. offense. And, you know, I think, I don't know. I mean, he was, Ron's already told you that he is

secure enough to, you know, roll the dice and make a big offer for Matt Stafford. Not that Matt Stafford has no rings, no MVP. I understand that. And Aaron Rogers only has one ring, which, by the way, is what everybody's pointed out to me on Twitter. And I'm like, okay, but he's been in five NFC championship games and was really close last year and in the game that Seattle recovered the onside kick to going to three different Super Bowls. I just, I hate that argument. It's like, and why do I hate it? Probably because I think Dan Marino is one of the four or five greatest

quarterbacks I've ever watched and he's never won a Super Bowl and he's only been to one. And I just don't judge NFL quarterbacks on rings. It's too dependent a position. How many MVP's as Stafford won? Stafford hasn't won any MVP's. Okay. Yeah. No, I mean, it's not the same argument.

No, I, I, I don't, he, Ron Rivera, who would have nothing to fear from Matt Stafford, because he could look at Matt Stafford and say, you know, what have you done? What have you done? Yeah, I don't know. I've been to a Super Bowl. What do you got? How many winning seasons did you have? Can't do that with Aaron Rogers.

everyone takes a back seat in that organization, Aaron Rogers, he comes here. I'd still do it, but you've got to recognize that. What does that mean? No, it's Aaron Rogers decides he's not crazy about Scott Turner as the offensive coordinator, a real possibility, you know? Right. Well, what if Matt Stafford or if they had drafted Justin Fields and after two years, Fields was playing pretty well and looks like he's trending.

upward but he's not getting along with Scott Turner. I know that, but that voice would not. No, none of those voices are as powerful as the guy with the Super Bowl ring, with the MVP's who you just traded half your team for. You know, I think Ron Rivera is at the point in his career. He just wants to win, which is why he tried to trade for Matt Stafford, which is why, you know, there was discussion about trading up for field. or even Lance.

You know, I don't know, I don't know the answer to that because I really don't know what that would mean. I mean, I don't think Aaron Rogers would come in and just have an office right next to Ron's and say, yeah, no, I think we bring this guy up from the practice squad this week. That's just not the way it would manifest itself. I understand that Aaron Rogers would become the most visible. By the way, he'd become the most visible athlete in this town. for a long, long time. It's been forever.

By the way, it'd be Westbrook and Aaron Rogers right now. Even more than Max or Ovechkin or anybody else that you want to put up there. Imagine you've got Russell Westbrook and Aaron Rogers playing in your city. No, no. Westbrook is not ahead of, sure, sir. I don't know. Come on. I don't know. Nobody's watching the NBA, buddy.

I got news for you. Buddy. Okay, champ. So here's the last thing on this, because I did this on the radio show and we took calls on it. Mr. Snyder, Dan. Dan comes to you, and you're the head of football operations and says... That's Mr. Snyder, by the way. And says to you, I'm just interested.

Of course, that's not the way it would go. But I'm just curious, what is your plan at quarterback? What is your three to five year plan at quarterback? What do you think the answer to that is right now from Ron to Mr. Snyder? There is no answer. This is part of... Wrong. This is...

Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Wrong. So you know there's an answer here. What is the answer, Kimosabi? What I would say is there is no answer is the wrong answer. You better have an answer for Mr. Snyder when he comes to you for a three to five-year plan on the most important position on your wrong.

But the reality is there is no answer right now. Actually, I think there is. Want me to give you my answer? Yeah, give me your answer. So I think Ron's answer would be this. Ron's answer would be, you know, we came into this offseason. We had plan A, plan B, plan C. Plan A was to be aggressive and trade for Matt Stafford because we knew that Detroit was going

to make them available. And Matt Stafford would become our three to five year plan. Plan B was to bring in a veteran free agent, you know, to look at the free agents out there, to bring in a veteran free agent for a certain number of years, and then on the backs of that, perhaps trade up for a quarterback this year, and if not this year, then next year. Because, you know, he did say, and he told Kime that Ryan Fitzpatrick, they don't view as just a one-year answer,

I agree with. I think Ryan Fitzpatrick could be a multi-year answer here. I think that's delusional. Go ahead. So plan B is, you know, Ryan and then we're going to try to draft somebody. If the, you know, Fields or Lance falls to a certain point, we're going to make a move up, and we're going to draft his successor. Plan C is we're going to find that veteran quarterback, and we're going to wait on the back half of that three-year answer.

if it's three to five and we've got Fitzpatrick for two. And that answer could be Taylor Heineckee or Kyle Allen, or it could be a drafted quarterback or another free agent to be determined. That's where you don't really have an answer. But he had a plan. The plan was Stafford, and that didn't happen. And then the second part of the plan, plan B, was to find a veteran quarterback that could come in and start

with a team that has to. a chance to win nine or ten games and go back to the playoffs next year for a year or two. Let's take the two out of it. What happens in the second year? I'm not taking the two out of it. I think that the two is very much in play. Okay, what happens to three years after that? Well, I just told you that now that they didn't get fields or they didn't get Lance in a trade-up and they didn't select a quarterback at any other point. We've got another two years to really learn what Kyle and Taylor are about. And who knows?

I mean, that could evolve into something. We like both of those young men. And we are going to be very active next year in the draft, and we will look at younger quarterbacks in free agency. We'll look at other trade possibilities. But they're right now sort of on the Plan C, which is the veteran quarterback, waiting on the two they have, and having a TBD on the three years after the next two,

which is, you know, obviously the least descriptive of the plans. Okay. By the way, my plan right now would be to go after Aaron Rogers. My plan would be to go big after Aaron Rogers. My plan would be to go big after Aaron Rogers. And if that fails, then my plan would be, you know what, Dan, I've got Ryan for, I think, two years. And in two years, Minnesota, if they haven't won big with Kirk Cousins, they're going to make them available. And I'm going to bring Kirk Cousins back to Washington.

Yeah. Oh, that's so great. Well, I mean. So the plan, my plan, Dan, is to. put our team into the hands of a quarterback who's played in 165 NFL games over his career, not one of them being an NFL playoff game. Yeah. And then, by then, the two quarterbacks, neither of which who were drafted by anybody,

would then take one of them would develop and take us after that. Yes. Okay. Well, that's good. That's after my point. be the general manager of a semi-pro team with that plan that that was after remember that's that's plan c you know plan a was being aggressive trying to trade for matt stafford well that's that ship of sale that plan plan plan is at the bottom of the ocean plan b was finding a guy that could help us

continue to win with this young developing team and get the most out of this young developing team for that's a two year or a year that's not a five-year plan with with a trade-up for for a younger quarterback in this draft. That didn't happen. So plan C we're on right now is Fitzpatrick for two and a TBD, whether it's one of the two that are on the roster now or an addition later. But again, my plan, that's what I think their plan is. My plan would be I'm going after Rogers in a big way.

By the way, that couldn't have been plan A, plan B or plan C just a few months ago because we didn't know about this availability. but I'm going after Aaron Rogers. Plan C, I might want to point out, it has a perfect letter for that plan because it is clueless. Okay, whatever. Well, you know, you can't have, Plan C has a TBD in it, no doubt.

Plan A, Plan B didn't. Plan C, by the way, is now an updated Plan C. It's we're going after Rogers. But if that is, if that doesn't happen, which it probably isn't going to happen, We think Ryan can be our quarterback for the next two years. We think we're going to the playoffs for the next two years. But what if it did?

What if they actually got Rogers? How great would that be? Well, for a lot of people, for a third of the people, polled, they think it would be a disaster. I mean, for us, it would suck to win 13 games. And remember, it's 17 game schedules. It'd suck to be 12 and 5, 13, and 4, or 14 and 3 next year to win the division. and to be playing Tampa in the NFC championship game, you know,

to go to the Super Bowl and face Kansas City. Who's he going out with these days, Aaron Rogers? I mean, he used to go out with Danica Patrick. I don't think he does anymore. A friend of mine. And then he used to go out with Olivia Munn. Now that would have been part of the deal. That would have been an incentive.

Would you have preferred Olivia Munn or Danica Patrick? I like Danica. I take a living a month. I love Danica Patrick. I like Danica Patrick. I don't dislike her. But that's not, he's engaged to somebody right now. Yeah, I know.

I know. And she's super young. Am I right? I forget who his fiance is. I think they're engaged. I could be wrong about that. I'm looking at right. I mean, Washington is a jeopardy kind of town.

It's full of Jeopardy Geeks. He would love it here. Shailene Woodley. Well, so I got a call from somebody last night. And I'll just tell you that they do live in Loudon, County near the facility because they actually might work in the facility and we were talking about a number

of things. Anyway, make a long story short. How would Aaron Rogers like D.C.? And I just said, well, Aaron Rogers wouldn't love living in Loudoun County. And to all of you who live in Loudoun County, that's not a knock on, it's a wonderful place to live. But Aaron Rogers strikes me as a person

that if he were going to play for Washington, he'd want to live in Washington. You know, He'd want to live in an area where, you know, you feel like you're, like I always say to Cooley, Leesburg is not Washington. No offense. You're kind of out. You're closer to West Virginia than you are Washington.

And I think- Is Virginia's version of Frederick? Yes. And by the way, you know, Loudoun County is booming and there's affluence and there's one Loudoun and all that stuff. Look, I've spent a lot of time out there. And it's a wonderful suburban environment. I just think Aaron Rogers would want to live if you were moving to Washington, would

want to live. I put it this way. If he were still dating Olivia Munn, my guess is they'd want to live in Georgetown or they'd want to live somewhere where they kind of got the feel of living in D.C. And by the way, I think a lot of people that live in the further out suburbs and they're not working in town and they're not coming into town, don't get the same sense of the city that some of us that either live in the city or are always in the city get. I just, whatever. I mean, that's my feeling on it. Shaline Woodley is his fiance. Aaron Rogers doesn't want to drink at one loudon, like half the

Redskins, half the Washington football team does. Well, the hockey team and the basketball team with me. Right. The hockey team and the baseball team and the baseball team and the, and the baseball team, and the basketball team, they live in town. Literally, a lot of them live in D.C. You know, I know a lot of them. Or just over the river. I mean, a stone's throw away. Yeah, I mean, I know a lot of the, several of the wizards. I know live in Potomac or Bethesda. Or Old Town or Arlington. Exactly. And several of the hockey players live in those same locations. Because it's convenient to where they work. It's not convenient for the football players to where they work to live close in.

I get that. Shailene Woodley is his new fiancé. She's 29 years old. Okay, for some reason I thought she was even younger than that. Is she some kind of celebrity? I mean, because he seemed to only date celebrities. She's a model. Is she in a television show?

Yeah, she's got a, she's been in movies. I don't know anything about her. She's been, she's, she's, Tommy, she's got a lengthy, you know, film and television resume. I just don't know the significance of her in any of these shows. Whatever. Okay. She made her film debut in the Descendants in 2011 and went on to star in the spectacular now in 2013.

She won a con trophy. received a nomination for a Golden Globe. She's a Bernie Sanders supporter. Okay. I bet you Aaron Rogers isn't. Well, she is. Okay. And she's dating Aaron Rogers right now.

She's an Oceans ambassador for Greenpeace. And they are engaged. There you go. A couple of caps, Wizards, Nats notes right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, let's finish up the show with some of the things that happened last night. First of all, I'll just say this real quickly. The Wizards lost to the Bucks 135-134. They've now, I think they're 12 and 3 in their last 15 games, something like that, whatever it is.

Their three losses are all last possession of the game losses to playoff teams. Russell Westbrook was outstanding again, but I thought he had a really rough final five minutes. He lost Connaton twice. on two massive three-point open shots for Milwaukee in the final minute, and I really thought it was Russ's fault. He completely lost him. I thought he had a couple of bad offensive possessions, had a terrible turnover, almost had a second, missed a free throw.

And I thought last night was one of those nights where I would have let Brad, who was really on last night. What a game he played, especially in the possession when they were down 133, 131. I would not have Russ, you know, a little bit out of control, and then he dumped it into Gafford. Gafford probably got fouled, but I would have been going exclusively down the stretch to Beale. That was his night last night.

But still, exciting basketball team, the games they lose are thrilling, like the Mavericks game and the Spurs game. And, you know, they've won 11 of their last 14 games. So they're 11 and 3 in their last 14, and 13 and 4 in their last 14. and four in their last 17, but 11 and 3 in their last 14, and the three losses, 146, 143 overtime to San Antonio, playoff team, 1 25, 124 Dallas playoff team, and last night, 135,

1-334 to the Bucks, a playoff team. They did not have Hachamura last night. Chandler Hutchinson got hurt during the game, but Milwaukee didn't have Middleton. They played Toronto tonight, and the significance of that game tonight against Toronto is essentially they can pretty much for all intents and purposes, even though it wouldn't be mathematically finalized. But if they beat Toronto tonight, they are now four games ahead of Toronto for the 10 spot. There are three games clear of Toronto now.

Washington's going to be in the play-in. They're going to be in it. It's just a matter of whether or not they're going to be the 10-seed, the 9-seat, or the 8-seed. That's pretty much determined right now. There was some bad news, though. What? Scott Brooks was named Eastern Conference Coach at a month.

He deserves it. I know, but this is lining up all wrong for this organization. Well, I'm telling you, we've talked about this the other day. If Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beale want Scott Brooks back, he's back. And I would endorse that if both of them want him back. I mean, where do you want to go? Well, yeah, I mean, there you go. I mean, this is part of the problem with Russell Westbrook.

It's part of the problem with the NBA. That's why nobody watches it. Most teams aren't trying to win a title. They're just trying to win some playoff series. Oh, God. What a surrender. What a white flag that is. Terrible.

And you know what? This is a wide open year to a certain extent. I mean, who the hell knows what Brooklyn? I mean, you know, Hardin is weird and Kyrie Irving is a total flake. I mean, he may decide not to play in the NBA playoffs. I mean, who knows what he's going to do? Durant, you know, winning titles isn't even a. important to him. He said that last week or two weeks ago.

He got his. Kyrie continues to get fined every single day because he just, he's too, I think he just feels he's way too smart for kind of the media in these press conferences. So he skips them all the time. Oh, well, I think, I think, look, anybody who has a worldview like Kyrie Irving does is obviously too smart for other people. Yeah, he's incredibly, he's super. brilliant. Yes.

Remember, he said, didn't he say about the media, I don't talk to pawns, my attention is worth more or something like that at some point? I don't know. Okay. So we haven't talked about the Caps situation. There's news. There's news on that. What's the news?

The news is the New York Rangers have been fined a quarter of a million dollars for their statements criticizing the NHL for the $5,000 fine against Tom Wilson. Wow. $250,000. Wow. Yeah. That's unbelievable. That's pretty wild.

That's pretty wild. The Gary Bettman, while we don't expect our clubs to agree with every decision rendered by the Department of Player Safety, the extent to which the Rangers expressed their disagreement was unacceptable. It was so cowardly, first of all. It was, well, it was so, it was such an exaggeration. To call what Tom Wilson did a horrifying act of violence, I mean, I'm not going to take this, you know, in another direction.

But the bottom line is it was hyperbole at its best, and it was ridiculous, and it made them almost look, you know, like cowards. he punched the guy when he was down. He wasn't even a hard punch. This was a hockey play that everybody in hockey says, no one would have had, you know, it spent two seconds talking about it if it hadn't been Tom Wilson. Now, I did have Greg Wyshinsky on the radio show this morning.

And even he said to a certain degree, while it wasn't a punishable kind of play, he was surprised that there wasn't more consideration given, you know, the history and the repetition of Wilson's offenses over the years, that he wasn't going to be. surprised if he had been suspended. I thought he would be suspended just because of the track record. Well, if he had been suspended two games, none of his fear would have ever happened. It's become a much bigger issue now than it should have been. Yeah. People would have expected him to be,

I mean, Capp's fans were holding their breath. How many games is he going to be suspended? Not if he's going to be suspended, you know? And so now it's turned into a big mess. And the rate, look, I understand hyperbole, and you're right about the Rangers, but hyperbole is usually generated in reaction to understatement. And a $5,000 fine in the Rangers view was an understatement. Right. I think there are, I think, I think the three, the four words in a row, horrifying act of violence, combined with the attack on the guy,

Peros. That was his name, right? The dereliction of duty by the head of their safety. Was his name Peros? Are you looking at it? I'm looking at their statement. He doesn't, he only mentions

George Paros. George Peros. They mentioned. Obviously, the attack on him personally, you know, and calling it a dereliction of duty, was you know, probably not well received. but, you know, saying that Wilson wasn't suspended for his horrifying act of violence is like, I mean,

how can we have a conversation if we can't deal in what actually happened and we can't deal in the actual facts? Well, because you're speaking to the media. You're speaking to social media. You're speaking to the world. That's right. And you have to push back, even if it's too far. What did you think of last night at the beginning of the game? I thought it was totally expected.

I mean, it's not my thing. I don't like it. I've told you that before. I'm not going to argue about fighting in hockey. I don't like it. I don't think the game needs it to be enjoyable and successful. But I tell you what, this has become bigger now, bigger than the caps wanted, bigger than the Rangers wanted. And what's going to happen now is the next time that Tom,

Wilson does something like this. Let's say if it's in the playoffs now, he's going to get his head handed to him. That's a really good point. I mean, while the NHL's coming down super hard on the Rangers, actually, let me take a step back to last night. How much of what happened last night? And Wysinski said to me this morning on the radio, he's the senior writer for ESPN.com covering the NHL, and Greg's been a long-time game.

on all of our shows over the years. Greg said what last night's beginning of the game was was all about the Rangers basically saying to the league, fuck you. You mess this up and we're going to mess this game up and we're going to show you up and we don't care what this looks like. So how much of the $250,000 fine today was also about what happened last night? That's reasonable to bring up. Absolutely.

So then you move on to what you said. I think that's true. I think to avoid. Now, teams have now learned if Tom Wilson doesn't get the punishment they think he deserves. They can go public, but they can't attack the guy, Peros. And they can't exaggerate about a horrifying act of violence when it wasn't that. It wasn't even close to that. But anyway.

But the league is. going to be under pressure. Yeah, I think you're right about that. I mean, again, a one game suspension, a two game suspension, and everybody moves on. Yeah, here's the Betman thing, which you just read, but, you know, to the extent to which the Rangers expressed their disagreement was unacceptable, it's terribly unfair to question George Peros's professionalism and dedication to his role and the Department of Player Safety. Public comments of the nature issued by the Rangers were personal in nature and demeaning of a league executive, and it won't be tolerated.

So really what they focused in on was the criticism of their guy. Yeah. Okay. How about that no-hitter by means for the Orioles last night, which was unprecedented, you know, because of the, you know, the one base runner reached via wild pitch. You know, there's some pushback, and I can't say. I don't necessarily agree with it, that it should be a perfect game.

Why? There was a base runner. That's true. Is there actual pushback? Yeah, there is. Because he did strike him out. I know, but there was a perfect game is. Well, you know what?

It was 27 up, 27 down, right? Because he struck him out. So I thought he threw him I thought he was thrown out at first No he ended up on first It was wild pitch he was on first Okay

They didn't throw him out So then they had to throw it They had to pitch to another guy So there had to be 28 batter batters up No he was caught stealing So they they They didn't face an extra batter

Because Right He was thrown out at second It's the first no-hitter for pretty Orioles since, I think, 1969. Palmer. Yeah. All that great pitching. They've had combined no-hitters.

They've never had an individual pitcher pitch or pitch of no-hitter since Palmer. I remember the one in 91 with Mark Williamson and four other pitchers. And Messina came so close a couple of times to no-hitters. But, I mean, it's maybe. the best game ever pitched in Baltimore Orioles history. It was so good. It really may be. They've had some good pitchers, too.

I know. So what did you make of the Nats lost to the Braves where they walked with first base open, they walked in front of Ozuna last night? I didn't have a big problem with it. They walked Freeman again. It's the second straight night, and Ozuna hit the Grand Slam.

Right. what's going on with the Nats right now? It's so early. I'm not... You know, they're competing without Soto and Strasbourg. They were in first place two days ago. Yeah, I know. Everybody's been...

Without Soto and Strasbourg. Yeah. You know, and I might want to point out, and it was reported by multiple people, not that it's news, but, you know, kind of a wake-up. When Davy Martinez is managed today's game, that'll be the longest 10. of any manager in national's history.

Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Maniacca has managed more games than anybody in franchise history until Davy manages tonight. So how many games did Frank Robinson manage? He managed for two seasons. I mean, he managed in Montreal for 2000.

You know, I mean, you know, but they don't count that. talking about national. Oh, right, right, right, right. Nationals. He managed in Montreal. So what about Davey? What about Davey Johnson? Two seasons.

It was three seasons, wasn't it? No, two and a half seasons. Oh. So Martinez. Dave Martinez is in his fourth year. That's crazy. Yeah. And so tonight, you're saying tonight will be, he'll become the manager that's managed

the most games for Washington. Since they've been in Washington, yes. I think it's 471, if I'm not mistaken. Wow. And as we know, sometimes I am mistaken. Yeah, I'm looking up to see what his record is in Washington right now. Yeah, it wouldn't be, no, he's managed 408 games. 408 games.

Yeah, so tonight will be 409. Okay. Actually, you said Maniacta? Maniacta's managed 410 total in Washington. So he's not going to tie it tonight. Well, maybe this hasn't been updated. Maybe he's at 409, and he's going to tie it tonight. By the way, Davy Johnson managed 407 games here.

Okay. And Dusty still has the best winning percentage of any of the managers here. But he couldn't get it done in the postseason. because he doesn't do analytics. That's that's absurdity. It doesn't do Moneyball. Moneyball was on the other day. I love that movie.

All right, I'm done with you. You done with you? You're done with me? That's all? Yeah, I'm ready to go do something else. All right. Try to do something productive for a change. Back tomorrow, I think with Cooley, but I have no idea right now. Have a great day.

Tommy, I'll talk to you over the weekend. See you. So long, boss.